Them-thar over-paid teachers and overfunded libraries are at it again!

Shocking bit of news--student performance is strongly related to how libraries and schools are funded, a new study says. I know, I was totally surprised. Especially since every time you turn around, even when the economy IS NOT in a slump, libraries and schools are criticized for their supposed lack of effectiveness, the outrageousness of their spending (a drop in the bucket of most state and federal budgets, keep in mind), and how grossly overpaid their staff is.

To hear it told, schools are just holding pens for rude, incorrigible students to hang out for eight hours while their parents are at work. They don't really learn much of anything. Well, other than how to make pipe bombs and that one shanks with a shiv, and not shivs with a shank. The educational system must be reenvisioned! And this starts with getting rid of "overpaid" teachers and expensive school libraries!

But this study is saying that as funding for schools increases, so does student performance. Hmm. Lets rethink our thoughts...

I'm a firm believer that if you're only willing to pay for a minimum wage person, that's exactly what you will get. Or any salary range, really. You will get a person who is either not capable of making more, due to lack of personality-fit, lack of skill and ability, or lack of talent for the job...or you will get a person who IS capable of making more, but is not experienced enough, or at a stage in their career where this is possible. People who CAN make more usually do go on to make more at a different position. And those that cannot, for whatever reason, stay. Is that who you want teaching your kids? The person who, for whatever reason, cannot move on to a higher paying job?

Sure there're the people who see it as a calling, or who have spouses with good jobs providing a certain amount of economic comfort and security. But if you are only willing to pay $22k a year, that's who you're going to get to teach in your schools--the poor teacher who see it as a calling, and is bedraggled, and on the verge of a burnout, and people who have nowhere else to go. Either they don't have the personality or the skills for more favorable circumstances. There's waaaaay too much crap dealt to teachers, from above at the administration and school board level, from the parents, and sometimes from students, to make a bad situation like a bad school with bad pay seem like a good idea for long.


So, lets get that whole paying teachers a competitive rate thing out of the way, and say we do that. And then lets say we have a well-stocked library with sufficient/educated staffing. This does several things for learning. The first is that it provides actual materials for learning. There's nothing worse than being told you need to do a report, and then trying to cobble together a topic based on what books are actually available in your library. It also provides materials for teachers to use in the classroom, either for their own knowledge and benefit, or to use directly in activities--videos, games, books with photos/paintings/illustrations, first-hand accounts of historic events, lesson planning materials. Stuff to really provide enrichment and make the learning easier and come alive in the classroom.

What else does a well-stocked library with educated staff do? It also provides the opportunity and resources to teach students how to do proper research. Not just finding a book on Ben Franklin for a report, or a Wikipedia article on Mesopotamia. But actually teaching them how to dig deeply into the web and online databases, how to judge the reliability of a source, and how to connect all the dots into a solid, satisfying research experience. An ill-stocked library that lacks database access, or has materials that are out of date or not of interest to any of the current students does none of this. Having qualified staff that are not spread too thin ensures there is always someone to help students, and that the school's media specialist can take the time to instruct students in all of those funny little things mentioned above.

Another thing that having a well-funded school and school library does is a little less obvious: it teaches kids that their school, their district, and the people who live in the district are serious about learning and knowledge. They care about learning enough to amass those sorts of materials, and put them at the hands of any student who wants to crack open a book or search a database. They've also worked with staff who gave them the tools they need in order to find information effectively. Because information is everywhere, but finding the RIGHT information isn't always easy. It can be daunting and discouraging. That can put students off even trying.

The last thing a well-funded (and we'll assume well-run) school and school library should do is provide children with a sense of curiosity and wonder about the world. It should provide them with a hunger for knowledge, the desire to know things outside the parameters of school assignments, and spark their imagination for knowledge of things other than what is right in front of them.

I would argue that this is the most important thing. Even under meager circumstances, having a sense of curiosity about the world, and the desire to find answers can lead to learning. It's more challenging, of course. And it may be more challenging in meager circumstances to inspire that in a child, when they don't have the implicit lesson that knowledge and information are important staring back at them on the book shelves. But without that, students will always strive for the bare minimum and they'll never be curious about the world outside of their syllabus and text books.

I think we're not going to have any of these things if we under-fund or eliminate school libraries. In addition to budget cuts for books, databases and equipment, I know some schools are getting rid of library media specialists and replacing them with a classroom teacher who does not have a class during any given period, or with aids only. I don't think it's going to turn out the way they think it's going to, without the right person to select the appropriate materials and to guide those young minds. School librarians do MUCH more than just teach kids how to use card catalogs.

It's the topic of another post for another time, but school libraries aren't going away. They're not going to be replaced by e-books. I have a feeling the schools trying to implement such silliness will find out in the long run that the grand experiment is not going to work because libraries aren't just about the words in the books they contain. It's about learning to find answers for yourself, learning what your community and culture value by what they chose to gather in one place and preserve, and having people on hand that can guide this whole process.

Save a mind, save a library.